Hoop hoop hooray!

It's January, and it's time to shake off the extra pounds which I've gained not just over recent weeks, but over recent months. So far, so good: I'm back following Weight Watchers Online and have lost 3lbs since the beginning of the year.

Unfortunately the year didn't start too well healthwise: two weeks ago I was floored by a virus infection which started off as a cold and left me feeling extremely fatigued. The very same thing happened to my mum and faithful travelling companion who are both trying to recover from it at the moment.

It's only now that I'm feeling ready to get fit again. Who needs to pay a hefty gym membership fee to join a gym in these times of economic gloom, when you can buy a couple of bits of equipment which you can easily use at home? Over the last couple of years I've particularly found the Reebok Mini Stepper as an effective way to get fit and has also helped to relieve my lower back pain too.



Yesterday I bought a hula hoop. The whole thing started off as a bit of a joke, but then I thought about how this could really help me tone up and get my waist back again :)



I had a hula hoop as a child and loved it, but back then it was possible to achieve more than the 7 or 8 revolutions I struggled to achieve yesterday. It was a good laugh using it though!

(pictures courtesy of www.argos.co.uk)

It's a no from me for the eggs factor*

Christmas time, mistletoe and wine. It was fun, but it was all gone in a flash, just like the Christmas trees which were blown down in Tuesday's 100 mph gales. Although our local Christmas tree defiantly remains upright and fully lit!

Even though a few hardy souls still have their trees up and strings of lights round their windows, most of the motorised reindeers have nodded their last, the trees and baubles are put away, we marvel at a set of lights actually lasting for four weeks (before they're put away to mysteriously fail before the first weekend of December 2012) and the cards are consigned to the Morrisons recyling bin. Yes folks, Christmas is over for another year, most of us are back to work - although no-one told a certain bus monopoly which has been operating a limited service since Christmas!

Anyway I digress. We need to take stock, to clear the decks, to declutter our minds and detox our bodies, and generally catch our breath after the Christmas rush.

What we do not need is Easter eggs on the 5th of January! Not so much egg-on-face as in-your-face the minute you walk into your nearest supermarket. And don't even start me on the Valentine cards...

Why can't we just let time pass naturally?

* I do love Mini Eggs, so that's the reason for the picture. Just don't buy me any till April :)

The "big year" (yawn)

Two days into 2012 and I'm already bored with the London-centric media's obsession over this "big year". Which of course means only two things: the London 2012 Olympics and the Queen's Jubilee. Both have a lot in common: in a time where there seems to be no solution in sight to the national (and worldwide) recession which is still spiralling out of control, both are a luxury which this country can't afford.

I have always loved the Olympics, yet the idea of them coming to this country still leaves me cold. Don't ask me to explain why, as I honestly don't know, but when I look at some of the practical aspects it all becomes a bit clearer.

Competitors and spectators from all over the world will descend on not just London, but also some other British cities too. No doubts they will be made very welcome by the majority of the population, but after the summer's so-called "riots" I would worry that they may be a target for the scum/low-lifes who despite the recession will always find money for drink, drugs and designer goods "by any means necessary". I've visited many countries over the years, but all of them felt safer than this one.

Then there's the poor transport system in this country. Having travelled all over Europe, the one thing I never fail to notice is the impressive transport infrastructure in place in many countries, even those with a lower standard of living to our own. Arrive in some European countries by air and you can take a train directly from the airport into the city, where you are then faced with a choice of buses and trams which run from stops which clearly state when the next bus/tram is coming, and it might even arrive on time. Transport in Britain is a shambles - bus and train companies whose timetables aren't worth the paper they're written on, poor services, rising fares etc. And don't even ask a bus driver why the bus was late or why you've been waiting for about 40 minutes since the last one, when it's allegedly a 10 minute service - you'll only get a grunt at best, or a torrent of abuse.

Finally, there's our climate. The Olympics is a summer showpiece, so why give it to a country where the weather is an obsession, probably because it's so rubbish most of the time?

Then of course there is the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Never mind that this country is going to hell, that the government is killing off public services and making us work till we drop, that's if we'll all still have jobs, that is. No, let's wave a flag and be proud to be British, for just one day let's forget how crap this country is. There is one good thing about it though: as with the royal wedding last year we're getting an extra day's bank holiday. Now that is worth celebrating.